Kontinental Hockey League
| inaugural = | teams = 28 | country = Belarus (1 team) Croatia (1 team) (1 team) (1 team) Latvia (1 team) (22 teams) (1 team) | champion = Metallurg Mednogorsk (2nd title) | most_champs = Ak Bars Kazan (2) Dynamo Moscow (2) Metallurg Mednogorsk (2) | qualification = | folded = | website = en.KHL.ru | singles = | ceo = Alexander Medvedev | director = | tv = | related_comps =Supreme Hockey League (VHL) Junior Hockey League (MHL) | founder = }} The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) (Russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига, Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league in Eurasia founded in 2008. It is commonly considered to be the strongest hockey league in Europe, and the second-best in the world. The league was formed in 2008, from a predecessor organization, the Russian Superleague (RSL). The KHL began its operations with 24 teams. After minor changes in the composition of the Russian teams and even a reduction to 23 teams for two seasons, the league expanded to 26 teams for the 2012–13 season: Lokomotiv Yaroslavl returned after missing last season due to the air disaster in 2011, Slovan Bratislava from Slovakia and HC Donbass from Donetsk, Ukraine joined the league, while Lev Poprad were replaced by Lev Praha, a team with the same name, but based in Prague, Czech Republic. Thus, for the first time, the league consists of 26 teams, of which 20 are based in Russia and 6 more are located in Belarus, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and Slovakia. The winner of the 16-team playoff after the end of the regular season is awarded the Gagarin Cup, named after the first man to reach space and orbit the Earth, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The title of Champion of Russia is given to the highest ranked Russian team. Russians constitute a large majority of the players in the KHL because of its origins as the Soviet and Russian national league. Players not from Russia represent a minority of 33% of the KHL players, and are mostly Eastern European (17.0%), Scandinavian (7.7%), and North American (4.6%). In 2011–12, there were 701 players in the league. Despite the word "Continental" traditionally being spelled with a C and not a K in the English language, the KHL transliterates the word with a K to distinguish it from numerous leagues that are abbreviated as CHL, such as the Canadian Hockey League and the Central Hockey League, and so that its abbreviation can look similar in both the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets. Team changes In season 2009-10 joined team Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg and Khimik Voskresensk was transferred to a lower league. Next season joined HC Yugra. After several attempts by teams from Central Europe and Scandinavia to join the KHL, expansion beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union was finally realized in 2011. Lev Poprad, a newly founded team based in Poprad, Slovakia was admitted to the league. But after only one season, Lev was replaced by a team of the same name, Lev Praha, from Prague, Czech Republic, while Slovan Bratislava from Slovakia and Ukraine's Donbass joined the KHL as expansion teams. Lev and Slovan managed to draw considerable public interest and qualified for the play-offs in their first KHL season. In 2013 Medveščak from Croatia and Russian Admiral Vladivostok joined the league, thus expanding the league even further. The league comprised 28 teams during the 2013-14 season, of which 21 are based in Russia and 7 more are located in the other countries. In 2014 Finnish team Jokerit from Helsinki, Lada Togliatti (which previously played in the league), and a newly created team named HC Sochi have joined the league. However, HC Donbass do not play in the league this season, due to the political instability in Ukraine, but intend to rejoin for the 2015–16 season. Two other teams, Lev Praha and Spartak Moscow, also withdrew from the 2014-2015 season due to financial problems. Prior to the 2015–16 season, Atlant Moscow Oblast withdrew from the KHL and on the contrary Spartak Moscow is returning to the league.League confirms format for 2015-16 season The Chinese club HC Kunlun Red Star were admitted for the 2016–17 season. Season structure Since 2009, the league is divided into East and West conferences. In the current season, each conference includes 14 teams divided into two divisions, 7 teams per division. During the regular season, each team plays 60 games: four games against each team in their own division, two games against each of the remaining teams in the same conference, one game against each team of the other conference and 8 extra games against selected opponents. The eight top-ranked teams in each conference receive playoff berths. Within each conference quarterfinals, semifinals and finals are played before the conference winners play against each other for the Gagarin Cup. The division winners are seeded first and second in their conference, based on their regular season record. All playoff rounds are played as best-of-seven series. In each round, the top seeded remaining team is paired with the lowest seeded team etc.16 In the playoffs, overtime periods last 20 minutes (or until a goal is scored). The number of overtime periods is not limited. In the 2012–13 season, the Nadezhda Cup (Cup of Hope) was introduced, a consolation tournament for the teams who did not qualify for the playoffs. The winning team in the tournament wins the first overall pick in the KHL Junior Draft. The tournament is intended to extend the season and help maintain interest in hockey in the cities of these teams, and help players of national teams prepare for upcoming World Championship. Players Though now not as restrictive in maintaining an exclusively Russian composition of players and teams, Russian teams are still not allowed to sign more than five foreign players, while non-Russian teams must have at least five players from their respective country. Foreign goaltenders on Russian teams have a limit regarding total seasonal ice time. Prior to the inaugural season, several KHL teams signed several players from the NHL.19 A dispute between the two leagues over some of these signings was supposed to have been resolved by an agreement signed on July 10, 2008, whereby each league would honor the contracts of the other, but the signing of Alexander Radulov was made public one day after the agreement (though it was actually signed two days prior to the agreement taking effect),20 leading to an investigation by the International Ice Hockey Federation.21 On October 4, 2010, the conflict between the leagues was settled when both signed a new agreement to honor one another's contracts. The league set up rules for the NHL lockout which lasted from 16 September 2012 to 12 January 2013. According to the special regulations, each KHL team was allowed to add up to three NHL players to its roster, among them at most one foreign player. More than 40 NHL players, the majority of them Russians, played in the KHL during the lockout. KHL players are represented by the Kontinental Hockey League Players' Trade Union. History Founding (2008) The KHL was founded in 2008 with 24 teams, the 20 teams from the last season of the Russian Superleague as well as the champion of the 2007–08 season of the second division. In addition, one team each from Latvia, Belarus and Kazakhstan were included. The teams were divided into 4 divisions, based on the performance in previous seasons. The first season got under way on 2 September 2008 and ended in April 2009 with Ak Bars Kazan becoming the first ever winner of the Gagarin Cup. Introduction of conferences (2009) In an effort to reduce the large travel distances for the teams, the second season saw the introduction of two conferences (East and West) and the re-alignment of the divisions according to geographical criteria. Despite efforts to expand the league to Central and Western Europe, only minor changes in the compositions of the Russian teams happened in the first three seasons. In the Gagarin Cup finals, teams from the East dominated with Ak Bars Kazan winning twice and Salavat Yulaev Ufa once. Yaroslavl air disaster (2011) The start of the fourth season was overshadowed by the Yaroslavl air disaster on 7 September 2011 in which almost the entire team of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was killed shortly after take-off for their flight to their season opening game in Minsk. The Opening Cup game in Ufa, which was already under way when news of the disaster arrived, was abandoned and the start of the season postponed by five days. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was forced to withdraw from the KHL season, but later played part of the VHL season and returned to the KHL in 2012. Expansion to Central Europe (2011 and 2012) After several failed attempts of teams from Central Europe and Scandinavia to join the KHL, expansion beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union was finally realized in 2011. Lev Poprad, a newly founded team based in Poprad, Slovakia was admitted to the league. Lev failed to reach the play-offs, but managed to draw considerable interest and sold out many of their home matches. For the 2012–13 season, Lev is replaced by a team of the same name, Lev Praha, from Prague, Czech Republic, while Slovan Bratislava from Slovakia and Ukraine's HC Donbass join the KHL. Seasons overview *: In the first season, Salavat Yulaev Ufa was the winner of the regular season, but the Continental Cup was not yet awarded. Trophies and awards The winner of the playoff is awarded the Gagarin Cup, the KHL Champion title and the Russian Champion title, regardless of the country the club represents. The team ranked first in the standings after the regular season, i.e. the winner of the regular season, is awarded the Continental Cup ( ). The winners of the conference finals are awarded the Eastern Conference Champion Cup ( ) and the Western Conference Champion Cup ( ). The KHL also awards the Opening Cup annually to the winner of the first game between the Gagarin Cup winner and the runner-up of the previous season. On September 10, 2011, three days after the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air disaster, the KHL head office decided to honor the deceased in the 2011 Opening Cup. All-time team records Since its foundation in 2008, 34 different clubs have played in the KHL, and 30 of them have at least once qualified for the playoffs. Of the current 28 teams, only two have not yet played in the playoffs. The table gives the final regular-season ranks for all teams, with the playoff performance encoded in colors. The teams are ordered by their championship results. a: Includes record of Dynamo Moscow before the merger with HC MVD in 2010'' b: Did not participate in the 2011-12 season due to the deadly air disaster on September 7, 2011, that killed the entire team'' References External links * www.khl.ru - Official homepage. (Russian language) * en.khl.ru - Official homepage. (English language) * Official KHL Store * KHL All Stars Game * KHL vs NHL exhibition games official homepage * KHL news and stats from Eurohockey * Kontinental Hockey League Players' Trade Union Category:Ice hockey leagues